Transportation Authority Gets Full Board

Ex-Buccaneer Shelton Quarles sat in on his first session as chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. He acted as something of a moderator between the various members of the group, who hail from seven counties.

Soon, it will be up to those county commissioners and mayors to try to persuade their constituents that any mass transit proposals the authority produces will be for the greater good.

That could be tough, when the first project mentioned could be a high-speed transit connection between only two of the counties, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Board members also touched on forming public-private partnerships to help pay for mass transit projects. They also stressed the importance of using local dollars to try to secure federal transportation grants.